Are You Going on Tour?

Sunday, October 31, 2010

The best things in life are often unexpected. 2010 will go down as my favorite Halloween weekend on record because I was surrounded by family and friends at the Nightshade release party. I'll do full-party blogging soon (I'm waiting on all the pictures to come in), but I wanted to do a Halloween post about joyful surprises.

I was shocked by the number of people who drove long distances to come to party. Dear, dear friends came to surprise me including my high school English teacher, Mrs. Heisler, who always encouraged my writing dreams.

One of the best surprises of this entire experience, however, have been the new and wonderful friendships I've made through Nightshade. My awesome teams at InkWell and Penguin - the amazing YA authors I've met at conferences. And then there's Shay.Actually he's Will Browning - the actor who brought Shay to life in the Shadow Days webisodes. Getting to know Will has been awesome because not only is he incredibly talented, he's also one of the loveliest people I've ever met.

I was honored that he came all the way from Florida to attend the Nightshade party. And (bonus!) he spent the weekend hanging out with my family and friends.

We took a tour of Minneapolis and St. Paul highlights and he took lots of pictures.

We carved pumpkinsand named them Bateman and Sebastian.And he stayed up until 3 a.m. with me watching Labyrinth.As an author, I thought there could be nothing better than having a talented actor portray one of my characters. I was wrong. What's even better is meeting a kindred spirit and making a friend for life.

Thanks for everything, Will!

Wishing all of you a Happy Halloween full of more treats than tricks!

And a huge thanks to DJ for sending me a picture of his pumpkin! Yay!!!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Thank you so much for all the fantastic pictures of Nightshade in the wild and for going out to hunt for your copy of the book. I will never be able to express how much it means to be that you guys are reading about Calla and her pack!

And tomorrow is the big day - the official Nightshade release party. Halloween is my favorite holiday so I'm thrilled we're celebrating Nightshade on the weekend of Samhain and having a costume contest.

I'd love to see you at the Red Balloon tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Tomorrow morning I'm picking up "Shay" from the airport. How cool is that?

I've been getting wonderful emails from readers - thank you so much for sending them. And I just learned that a Nightshade fan site is being created!!!

Check it out: http://nightshadenexus.com/

I've also had the chance to do some stock signings so if you're around Minneapolis you can find signed copies of Nightshade at Bookcase of Wayzata, the Borders at Rosedale, and Barnes and Noble at the Mall of America. I'll be signing stock at Borders Woodbury tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Some folks who are most definitely ready are the lovely ladies at the Red Balloon Bookstore in St. Paul, MN, where on October 29 we're having my official book party. I can't wait!!!

Time for a contest!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

The week of October 19, hunt down Nightshade in your local bookstore and show me when you've captured the book! Share your picture of Nightshade in the wild in the comments here, on Twitter, Facebook or your own blog. Contest is open until Wednesday, October 27.

The winner will receive this extra special Nightshade prize pack, which includes:

Mister Wolf the puppet (recognize him from the photo above?)Allegro Coffee's Vail BlendCalla's favorite book, Watership DownA journal in which to record your own storiesThree CDs that were oft played in the writing of Nightshade (TV on the Radio, Bat for Lashes, and Radiohead)And 5 signed bookplates to share with your friends (or hoard, if you'd like)

Please note: While sometimes you can find books prior to their official publication date, Nightshade has a strict on-sale date of October 19 so don't go hunting until next Tuesday. The contest will be open from Tuesday October 19 to Wednesday October 27.

Monday, October 18, 2010

In the summer of 2009 I got the call that Michael Green at Philomel wanted my book. I think I may have blacked out for a second or two. I managed to contain myself because I was on the phone with Agent Richard and was, at that point, still concerned that I not be too weird around my agents.

Fast forward: October 2010

Tomorrow my debut novel, Nightshade, hits stores. Agent Richard and Agent Charlie now both now how absolutely crazy I am and seem to like me anyway. Michael Green is still my hero and Jill Santopolo, my editor, is not only brilliant - she's also my friend.

Nightshade started at Penguin but it's making it's way around the world thanks to Foreign Agent Lyndsey who is an absolute star.

I've had the chance to travel all over the country meeting librarians, booksellers, and readers and each place I've been makes me more thrilled about my book's release date. And the more I'm drawn into the writing and publishing world, the more I know this is a collaborative work of love and I am deeply indebted to Penguin, Inkwell, librarians, booksellers, and fans for bringing Nightshade to the wider world.

I will never have enough thanks. The Nightshade pack is growing - thank you for running wild with me.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

I've ended up with an extra day in Austin due to an electrical failure on the plane I was supposed to take home. With this additional time on my hands I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on the fabulous that is the Texas Book Festival.

It's my first time in Austin and I must say: cool town. Lots of interesting people, amazing art, and great places to go. There's obviously tons going on all the time.

Including Santas on Segways (there was a huge line of them, and they had elves!)

After I took this Santa's pic, he gave me a candy cane :) (I'm not kidding. He really gave me a candy cane)

The Texas Book Festival has been great. It's wonderful seeing the downtown full of literary-minded folks. I was lucky to hang out with Heather Brewer and Kirsten Miller. Our panel was standing room only! And the signing afterward was a blast.

Then we had the Zombies vs. Unicorns panel. Usually I consider myself Team Unicorn, but we were assigned our teams upon arrival and last night I made an appearance on behalf of Team Zombie. And we rocked. Though Team Unicorn "won" I think it was just 'cause of Meg Cabot's sparkly cardigan - it was a bewitching cardigan.

I was very proud of Team Zombie. We made beautiful art together. Thanks to Heather Brewer's uber-minions for taking a photo! I composed and performed a haiku for my part:

Putrid flesh is vilebut none can match the force ofEternal hunger

Since I didn't know which team I was going to be on I also had a Team Unicorn haiku ready to go, to which you guys get exclusive access

Steed, ever untamedCrowned with a weapon, deadly spireTo pierce hearts or win them

Clearly I will take any opportunity to write paranormal haiku.

It's been a wonderful trip, despite airplane failure, and it was amazing to talk with so many readers. Thank you to everyone who came out and to the wonderful volunteers who made the festival run smoothly.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Tomorrow's a big digital day. From noon until midnight I'll be answering questions over at Bitten by Books. Stop by to say hello! You can also enter to win a finished, signed copy of Nightshade.

And, in case you missed it, Shay has just posted his final video of Shadow Days. If you want to learn about the marketing campaign and how to get the prequel I wrote from Shay's point of view, stop by between 7 and 8 p.m. (EST) at www.facebook.com/shadowshay where I"ll be answering questions!

Big day of Q&A and then I'm on a plane to Texas! Any Austin area folks head out to the Texas Book Festival to see me - I'm signing in the Penguin booth on Saturday.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

I thought some of you might be wondering about these acronyms (MBA, GLIBA) that have been keeping me busy of late.

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has many regional branches and around this time of year these branches hold their annual trade shows.

Tradeshows are neat because they are full of people who love books so much they've made a career out of it. Booksellers get together to talk about how to best sell books, how to use new media, publicity tactics, and they get to meet authors. That's where I come in - I've been making the rounds at trade shows to talk about NIGHTSHADE. It's so much fun because I get to talk about my book to people who are really excited about getting it into the hands of readers.

And wow do booksellers know their readers. One of my favorite parts of the show was at my signing table and having booksellers ask me to personalize NIGHTSHADE for a loyal customer or beloved niece/nephew who they are certain will love the book. That's so exciting and wonderful!

I signed a lot of books (there were probably five more boxes on the floor behind me). Thanks so much to the amazing Allison, of Penguin publicity, who was my buddy for the show. She rocks.

This weekend I'm headed to Austin for the Texas Book Festival. This event is of a different sort than the trade shows as its much more oriented towards the readers than the book sellers.

I'm also going to be in a Zombies vs. Unicorns face off. I cannot wait.

Monday, October 4, 2010

You'll be seeing me here and there on the blogosphere as we're within two weeks of Nightshade's publication. (TWO WEEKS!!!!! The waiting is killing me!)So I don't go mad, I'm going to focus on things that make me happy. Talking to people about Nightshade makes me very happy and I'm getting to do a lot of that lately.

Last weekend I was thrilled to participate in Anderson's YA conference in Naperville, Illinois. But my events kicked off before the conference began.

First I got to meet amazing readers at a pre-publication dinner.

They let me talk a lot

And we had so much fun (and delicious chocolate cake!)

The next day I visited schools. Despite my trip to the principal's office, I had an incredible time talking with students.

And they gave me flowers! Wow!Then it was on to the conference. I love writing/book conferences because it means I get to hang out with other authors. YA authors are ridiculously fun to hang out with. I finally got to meet Kiersten White, who has been my 'virtual' friend for a while now. I love Kiersten! Her book, Paranormalcy, hit the NY Times bestseller list. Congrats, Kiersten!!

I also got to hang out with the super awesome David Levithan and John Green. I was on a panel with Antony John - his book Five Flavors of Dumb is fabulous - and Kirsten Miller (you've already heard me rave about Eternal Ones).The next two weeks I'm heading to Michigan and Texas to talk more about Nightshade. Thank goodness. I need the distraction. Waiting is so hard!

RISE (Nighshade Origins #2)

SNAKEROOT (Nightshade Legacy #1)

INVISIBILITY (co-authored with David Levithan)

Blog Etiquette

My Web Site

My Novels

While other teenage girls daydream about boys, Calla Tor imagines ripping out her enemies’ throats. And she wouldn’t have it any other way. Calla was born a warrior and on her eighteenth-birthday she’ll become the alpha female of the next generation of Guardian wolves. But Calla’s predestined path veers off course the moment she saves the life of a wayward hiker, a boy her own age. This human boy’s secret will turn the young pack's world upside down and forever alter the outcome of the centuries-old Witches' War that surrounds them all.

Non-Fiction Works

About Me

Author of YA/Crossover speculative fiction. Represented by Charlie Olsen and Richard Pine (InkWell Management). I'm originally from the Northwoods of Wisconsin (it's not the Midwest, it's the Canadian Shield) but have recently migrated to Manhattan.
Before I began writing full time, I was a professor of history, and I spend a lot of time thinking about worlds beyond this one. Worlds of the past, worlds yet to come. The first writing projects I undertook were plays performed for our parents by my little brother and myself in our living room. Sometimes these pieces involved puppets made from brown paper bags. More recent WIPs are speculative fiction, YA, and children's literature.